Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at an an influential committee of MPs which claims the Labour Party is "institutionally anti-Semitic."

A damning report from the Home Affairs Select Committee rubbished Shami Chakrabarti's investigation into anti-Semitism in the party and rapped Mr Corbyn for not preventing it giving a "safe space for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people."

The Labour leader issued a lengthy response this morning, complaining that the committee never invited Baroness Chakrabarti to give evidence ahead of its report.

He said: "The report’s political framing and disproportionate emphasis on Labour risks undermining the positive and welcome recommendations made in it."

(Image: PA)

He claimed it "violates natural justice" by failing to offer a right of reply to people it criticises.

And he says there is "no reliable evidence to suggest anti-Semitism is greater in Labour than in other parties.”

Baroness Chakrabarti, the former head of human rights group Liberty is heavily criticised for accepting a Labour peerage and joining Mr Corbyn’s inner circle, which has “thrown into ­question” the inquiry’s independence.

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The BBC’s Andrew Marr said the report came close to branding Baroness Chakrabarti “corrupt.”

Home Affairs committee acting-chair Tim Loughton said: “We don’t say corrupt, but what we have done is - we are still awaiting a reply to our letter to her about the timings of when she was offered the peerage which she now has.

“And if this is supposed to be an independent report, written by someone who is now sitting around the Shadow Cabinet table with Jeremy Corbyn , and it’s a report which just describes these anti-Semitic incidents as “unhappy incidents”, I’m afraid lots of people have said really this isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and Jeremy Corbyn needs to be doing more.”